Many of us here have witnessed and anecdotally know how transformative and pivotal coaching training can be.
The team at The Coaching Institute (TCI), headed by founder Sharon Pearson, is on a mission to turn this into systematic findings.
Why is this important?
With the rapid growth of the coaching industry in recent years, it is absolutely paramount to develop, establish and implement practices of the highest standards. This will help produce better coaches, better coaching, and ultimately, drive forth the professionalization of coaching.
About The Study
TCI’s research project, Discovering How to Serve our Students Even More, was launched in February 2020. It is an ongoing, longitudinal study examining the impact and effectiveness of coaching training (provided at TCI), by examining various aspects of personal and professional development in their coaches .
This project is part of TCI’s active efforts towards evolving their content and raising their standards, with the goal of offering fully research-informed training and resources. This data is extremely insightful to monitoring how their coaches learn and grow – an indirect reflection of the success of the school.
Recruitment
Students are invited to participate in the study when they first enrol at TCI, and will have completed the first questionnaire by their first foundational course. The data here marks the beginning of their coaching journey.
To also provide value to participants, an individual report is generated for each time they complete the questionnaire. This report provides participants with meaningful interpretations of their results, allowing them to track their own progress and boost self-awareness – a crucial component of their journey.
Study Design
As a longitudinal study, participants complete the questionnaires online at a minimum of four different time points: by their first training, 3 months after, then 6 months, then 1 year. They can then opt to complete it annually from there on out. This way, individual changes are trackable.
A total of 16 psychological scales – a mix of quantitative and qualitative ones – are employed as measures to assess an individual’s psychological & professional well-being and development.
Psst, want to learn about these scales and how to utilise them in your coaching?
At TCI, some of listed scales are taught as part of the Advanced Skills training – this includes how to best understand, score & interpret results, ultimately allowing coaches to administer them with your clients. In the Meta DynamicsTM training, coaches are further trained in more scientifically-validated scales and questionnaires.
What’s next?
And there you have it – a rundown of project Discovering How to Serve our Students Even More.
As of 17 August 2020, there have been 206 wonderful coaches participate in the study.
The team at TCI are working behind the scenes to keep the ball rolling on ongoing recruitment, expand that sample size, and bring you monthly updates.
Watch this space.